The job was supposed to be simple. Infiltrate and retrieve a nobles "lost" ring. However now being held captive behind rusted iron bars, there wasn't much hope. Somehow completing the task would be nothing short of a miracle let alone getting free.

"Let us out!"The brown haired man screamed with all his human might.

Cassardis jiggled the bars of the cage violently. Using all the strength his arms could muster, but to no avail. They remained stiff, only exhausting the desperate man at the feeble attempt of escape. The group were captured by bandits in some forgotten fort in Soren's nearest forest. As the "stealth" operation was foiled by some factor, which then led to them being captured.

At the depths of the structure no matter how hard Cassardis screamed his lungs out trying to get some sort of response, there was no outside reaction. Which was disappointing. Either the bandits could hear and ignored him, or the old stone walls were pretty thick.

Then some frightening thoughts came about.

Were they going to kill them? Or perhaps make them pawns in some sort of attack? The roads haven't been very safe for quite some time, it could be possible that this group could be the cause.

Trying to apprehend their leader at least would be quite a challenge. But before even thinking about collecting the leader, the group would have to get out of the prison and reclaim their equipment.

Someway, somehow....

Unless they'd be comfortable being the pets of low-lives for-maker-knows how long.

Whatever would happen wouldn't just be the cause of Cassardis alone, but the group he had been in charge of leading during the job. There was an assortment of faces.

A face unmarked by emotion, aside from the occasional knitting of the brow, stared fixated on the wall just in front of it. The sand elf, a woman named Atrina, seemed unfazed by the fact that she was sitting in a cold and dank cell in a rotting bandit fortress. Her eyes, one milky and the other gleaming, danced over every detail in that wall, whatever she could see beyond the rusting iron bars. Her mouth turned downwards into a frown as she listened to Cassaradis scream and holler to be set free. Despite how impatient she was herself, Atrina knew begging would get nowhere with such cutthroat bandits, if they could even hear him.

"Save your strength, we'll need it later on."

Her voice was surprisingly calm for someone who had been thrown into a jail cell surrounded by who knows what. Atrina smoothed the black robe-like garb she wore as she stood, moving towards the bars herself. Laying a hand on Cassardis' shoulder, she moved past him and quickly pushed her slender hand outside the bars. She had hoped that she could possibly reached the keys that were hanging just a few feet away, but that didn't seem as easy as she previously thought. Her arm only reached out to just below her elbow, before she was forced to pull her arm back into the cell. Muttering a few choice words in her native tongue, Astrina looked around the dark cell. There was little opportunity for escape; This place was far too well made. She felt a welling of frustration in her, as she realized this could have been a trap all along.

"They told us this was a 'rag-tag' team of bandits. They decided to forgo the information that they were coordinated enough to ambush us and had access to a moldy fortress prison!"

Atrina felt her voice rise a bit, but quickly let her temper simmer down. She disliked this all, from the doing meaningless tasks for rich idiots to being locked with a group of people she hardly felt comfortable with. What she wouldn't give to be dancing through hot sands once more. Her memories of home were dashed when she heard muffled speech just beyond the door that led back outside, into the actual fort. Her eyes narrowed as she listened, but Atrina couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

Jax was sitting, leaning against the wall of the cell, wondering why he had gotten into this. He could have stayed on the streets, selling the few jewels he had managed to keep after being ambushed when he first came to this maker-forsaken place. Or he could have even travelled back home to Mirn, returning a disappointment to his entire family, looked down upon for his disinterest in the family business.... No, it was not wanting to go home that had led to this. And now he had been captured, and his things taken. His jewels, his knives, his dagger... His dagger, the one thing in this world he loved. He had crafted it with his own two hands, and it had never left his side since. Until now.
Jax groaned loudly and resisted the urge the slam his head into the wall. "Should've just listened to father," he muttered to himself. "If I had just stopped making blades, I wouldn't be in this situation now. But nope, I just had to not listen. And the bandits are most likely going to end up selling my dagger. Well done, Jax, great job..." It was true about it being likely for the bandits to sell his dagger; just the value of half of the jewels in the hilt would have set someone up for life. Jax stopped muttering and rested his head on his knees, sighing deeply.

With a final attempt of trying to pull the bars, Cassardis succumbed. Seeing the how Altrina was so close to the keys on the rack was very depressing.

"We should have been prepared for every possibility." He muttered frustratingly.

Cassardis scratched the back of his head eyeing the area of the cell, getting familiar with it and anything to note. Nothing but dirt, darkness, an empty rusted bucket and a Feline in the corner moping.

"Such information would have been nice, but nothing we can do about it now." Cassardis replied to Atrina casually, leaning his back on the bars of the cage both arms crossed over his chest. Raising a brow and shifting gaze over towards the isolated Feline.

Jax looked up at the guy and gave him a dirty look, before putting his head on his knees again. "No, I don't have a plan," he said sulkily, without looking back up. "And it doesn't matter what I'm mumbling. No one usually cares about what I say anyway..." Jax knew he wasn't being very polite, but considering the current situation, he didn't really care.
Jax wished he was back home, because then he would be able to sneak down to the jewellery workshop to make blades. Jax wished he had a better father who supported him. His mother did, she thought it was nice to have a son who was interested in other things then jewellery and trading, but she never had much say as she was hardly at home.
When Jax was younger, his mother used to tell him stories about her travels. Even though she was just a trader, she still had adventures. Run ins with pirates, thieves, being locked up, but she always got out of the situation. Jax hadn't seen his mother in a while, but the last time he had, he gave her a blade; a sword that looked similar to his dagger. She had loved it...
Jax sighs again, thinking about his mother. "I wish mother was here, she'd know what to do..." he said to himself, not caring if the others in the cell heard him.

"by the holy, you quiet down a bit over there." Augustine spoke out as he sat up from his dirt bed. His head was still a bit groogy from being attacked from the ambush. Thankfully his helmet protected him from sustaining serious injuries but it wasn't enough to keep him from being unconscious, he was just curious as to why they didn't take it. "You won't come up with a plan by mopping about, pick yourself up." Ironically Augustine said as he was still laying down. Without a doubt they were stuck, it wasn't the first time Augustine had been locked up but normally his friend Julie could just slip through the bars and open the lock, sadly there was no luck this time.

Augustine slowly picked himself up and leaned against the bars, he wasn't lucky enough to be in the same page as the others, he was confined to his own smaller, more disgusting one. "Cassardis, I don't suppose you think we can reason with these bandits could we?" He asked. At this rate Augustine would do anything as long as he made it out here alive.

Remember, when you go to war. If peace doesn't work carry the bigger stick.

"I'm not moping about," Jax muttered to himself, in response to Augustine. He let his long fringe fall to cover his face. This way, they couldn't see his face and he didn't have to see theirs.
Jax scratched at the inside of his wrist with a long nail - an old habit of his when agitated he tried to stop but couldn't, even after hurting himself a few times doing it - and closed his eyes, thinking. His mother had told him many stories, but his favorite ones had been about her escaping after being locked up...
Jax sighed again, thinking about his mother. She was an amazing woman and a brilliant mum. It was she who had said to Jax about him stopping doing the wrist scratching thing, when his father hadn't even realised...
Jax shook his head slightly, clearing the thoughts of his family. He got back to the task of trying to work out what to do.

Slumped over into the corner of the next cell over, laying in a heap lay Strom bruised and now surfing from a spiting head ache both from being unceremoniously dumped into the cell and from Cassardis persistent screams. Taking off his ratty cloak he inspected it for new holes. finding a tear lager enough to fit his hand through he called out
" you bloody savages you may have taken my everything else from me, but i'll be damned if you take my dignity!! do you know how long it took me to get the vomit, and blood out of this cloak?"
grumbling "it wasn't even mine this time."
Having finished his little outburst Strom searched for anything in his cell he might use.

Atrina ignored the others, running her hand over the old brick that kept them from breaking free. Her eyes narrowed as she ran the tips of her fingers over the various cracks and glaring faults in the mortar; perhaps a point was weak enough to bash in? She instinctively reached for her weapon, but cursed quietly when she remembered they had taken it from her. She brought a hand up to her face and felt the small cut below her good eye, where a bandit had caught her with the hilt of his sword. She had attempted to put up a fight, but it was almost futile, as these men seemed far more capable than anyone she had ever fought. Shaking her head as she rubbed the cut a bit, she returned her hand to the brick. Her lips pursed in thought for a moment, before she backed up a bit. Stretching, Atrina rolled her shoulders before slamming her entire body into the wall that she had been feeling up just a few seconds earlier.

Dust and small debris trickled down from the spot she had slammed into, but there was no immediate result besides the pain in her shoulder. "Damn it!" She muttered, dusting off the sheer cloak she had wrapped around her shoulders. Atrina glanced to the others, her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at them all. They all seemed to just be sitting around, moping at the fact that they were now locked away. At the suggestion of reasoning with the bandits, she shook her head before slumping down by the wall she had just hit. When she got out, she would slaughter every one of these bastards for tossing her into this stupid cell.

Jax broke the skin of his wrist with his scratching. He looked at the blood starting to appear at the small cut, and was reminded of a story his mum had told him.
She and the men she had been travelling with had been captured and locked up. They had been injured in a fight, and his mum decided to use this to her advantage. She had made one of her wounds bleed a lot, so it looked really bad. She got the men to call for the people who had locked them up, and the guards had opened the cell to see what was going on. As soon as the door was opened, the men and his mum rushed the guards and managed to escape.
Jax sat there and thought about it. These bandits weren't guards like those who had captured his mum, but they had kept him and the others alive, instead of just killing them. He lifted his head and moved his fringe out of his face. "Guys," he said. "I think I may have an idea." Not waiting for anyone to say anything, he told them the story about his mum. "I think it might work for us," he said afterwards. "After all, rather than kill us, which would have been much easier, these bandits locked us up..." Jax trailed off, because saying it out loud, the plan seemed less likely to happen the way he would want it to.